The Afro-American

27 Pages·2007·0.41 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 048 259
TE 002 236
Letkowits, Judith W.
AUTHOR
The Afro-American--His Literature and Music
TITLE
(A
Language-Arts Unit).
INSTITUTION
Ewing High School, Trenton, N.J.
PUB DATE
Oct 68
NOTE
26p.
EDRS PRICE
ED2IS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29
Audiovisual Aids, Bibliographies, Educational
DESCRIPTORS
Objectives, *English Programs, Fiims, *Language
Arts, *Music, Negro Achievement,
Negro Culture,
Negro History, *Negro Literature, Phonograph
Records, Racism, Secondary Education, Student
Attitudes
ABSTRACT
This language arts unit offers and outlines
(1)
introductory viewpoints to broaden both black and white students'
understanding of Afro-American culture (e.g., an explication of the
various meanings of "soul");
general objectives and desired
(2)
specific knowledge and skills;
introductory activities (attitude
(3)
poll; discussion of racism; ezamination of gospel, blues, and movies
about black Americans);
(4) core activities ("soul" in music,
history, and literature--particularly "Nigger" by Dick Gregory; study
of short stories, essays, drama, and poetry);
a student
(5)
bibliography of 116 Afrc-American works of fiction and nonfiction;
a teacher bibliography of books, magazine articles, and research
(6)
on black Americans (37 items); and (7) audio-visual aids (films,
Lilmstrips, records, and tapes.)
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THE AFRO- AMERICAN --
HIS LITERATURE AND MUSIC
(A Language-Arts Unit)
by
Judith W. Lefkowits
October, 1968
Ewing High School
Ironton, Now Jersey
VIEWPOINTS
Viewpoints
Unit:
I.
A 12 week unit that introduces the student to
1"
various viewpoints of life including:
a viewpoint of western culture--literature
1.
and arts of France and Sweden.
a viewpoint of Eastern culture--literature
2.
and arts of Japan and India.
a personal viewpoint - -a study by the student
3.
of himself and a secretly-paired partner (another
student) in a diary and writing project (to see
oneself as others view one)
an autobiographical versus a biographical
4.
study of a well-known person (to see the difference
between one's own view of oneself and another's
view.)
A Sub-Unit of 4 to 6 weeks:
The viewpoint of the
Afro-American through his contributions to the Arts
(particularly to literature and music):
Rationale:
In city councils and state legislatures,
1.
there has been a large number of bills
iritroduced,
mandating the teaching of black Assemblyman
from Newark is considering legislation that would
include a new emphasis on the study of the Afro-
American's contribution to American arts and
letters.
There has been widesprerei agreement
that the public schools should expand their
activities in this area.
This sub-unit is
directed toward that goal.
An understanding of the artistic contribution
2.
of the black American
turther the understanding
of the American Negro and his viewpoint and quicken
his acceptance into the mainstream of American Culture.
The "invisible man"--In modern literature,
a.
there has been much discussion of the so-called
alienated man it the 20th century.
This modern
man-at-odds with his society, full of self-doubt
and insecurity is prominently depicted in white
literature and art, but public schools and
universitirs have rarely been exposed to the
uniquely alienated man of American culture--the
American Negro, described by Ralph Ellison
(a black author) as "the invisible man."
An understanding of the plight of the black
b.
man and its expression in arts and literature- -
This is necessary in older that he takes his
rightful place in American culture and that the
danger of creating a large gap in the composite
picture of American culture and arts be eliminated.
One of the grievances expressed by Negro civil
rights leaders today is that ho has been largely
ignored and that the black ran will not achieve
his full civil and economic rights until he has
equally achieved his place in the cultural
mainstream of the arts,
Necessary today-Tomorrow a special unit on black
c.
contributions to the arts may be unnecessary, but today
As Jonathan Kozal said,
the lack is obvious.
in his
article in the N.J.E.A. Journal of September, 1968,
"While martyrs die in Alabama and Mississippi, we cannot
stand up in our cla:sroom; we cannot talk of Betsy
Nor can we get away with
Ross and Thomas Jefferson.
"
a few token examples of black history and heroism.
It
is tiEe to stop having a week for black history and
start having a month, a term, a year.
It is time to
cut out discussion of Booker T. Washington, Harriet
Tubman, George Washington Carver and the other safe
old black people who don't frighten us.
It is time
to begin discussion of Nat Turner, Eal-tha Kitt,
Count Basie, James Brown, James Baldwin, yes and of
Stokely Car,7ichael too (whether we like it or not,
he is here and he is not going to go away) and
Mohammed Ali, Dick Gregory and Malcolm X.
A manifestation of Black Consciousness--the
d.
As a result of this
origin and meaning of "Soul".
alienation, the American Negro has tended to be
ambivalent toward this country's cultural, social,
and econ,,mic mainstream, caused by the heretofore
impassable barrier between Negro and White society
However, today a limited number of Negroes
in America.
have gained access to this country's mainstream and
thcreZore his security in this alienated state is
threatened and three alternatives have been developed;
(1) a denial of the possibility of mobility (this is
(2) an accept-
apparently becoming more impossible.)
ance of the necessity of achievement according to white
standards and ideals (thus creating tensions, self-
(3) the denial of the so-called
doubt, and conflict.)
superiority of white cultural standards which have
no place in black sub-culture as it is presently
*In order to build a self-defense mechanism,
constituted.
the Negro, according to many observers, has constructed
an inner-directed cult: al folklore which Negroes
generally now call "SOUL" or black consciousness.
Therefore the Negro has turned almost exclusively to
himself, rather than to the society in which he lives,
for hie cultural and artistic benchmarks.
3
The ingredients of "Soul"-This
(1)
inner direction has gone so far, nowa-
days, that Negroes and whites alike refer
to "soul food", "soul music" or, simply,
to someone who does or does not have
The term "Soul" ha:' no definition;
"soul".
no intellectual meaning (this would cause
disagreement on its connotations), but rather
an emotional connotation.
It simply
means a compilation of Black feelings,
affirmative or negative toward his own
inner-directed folkways. Along with this,
is the vague feeling that "Soul" also
connotes and embodies the suffering and
rejection caused by the black man's unique
problem - his color.
Suffering:
the history of
(a)
persecution and rejection
the frustrating search for
Self:
(b)
his identity (black consciousness)
Survival:
the kinship with those
(c)
somehow survive.
The relevance of "Soul" to this sub-
(2)
unit - This is to give this term meaning not
through an objective definition but
through the expressions of "Soul" in black
art, music, literature, particularly
in projecting its impact on blacks and whites
alike as it permeates all levels and
An understanding
disciplines of Negro life.
of "soul"; the earthy poignancy of Aretha
Franklin singing "Respect" or the harsh
truths of James Baldwin as Ruius suffers
in Another Country or the torment of the
who had to be twice
Black intellectual
as good as the white Phd. to succeed;
as did J. S. Redding in "On Being Negro
in America", or the Harlem alienation
of Claude Brown in Manchild in the Promised
Land, unites the various spokesman of
the Afro-American, its cultural leaders,
and gives a point of reference for the
white culturst.
American Unity through understanding
(3)
the Afro-American through his contribution
to literature and the arts - thorough
understanding of the striving for identity
behind the Negro conception of "soul" will
plate it in the mainstream of American arts
and literature.
It will give the concept
validity as a way of dealing with human
experience which is so much E
part of
literature and the arts' role in life.
4
4
Since by discussing "soul" and its meaning you making
implicit reference to "non-soul" cr
an
the white community, you are proving
the importance to the Negro of under-
standing himself in terms of the rest
of American white culture an
society.
Literature attempts to help man under-
Thus "soul" as ex-
stand one another.
pressed in Negro art, music, and literary
contribution can only have the effect
of furthering the black man's self-
concept and the white man's under-
standing of black consciousness.
Therefore, in this unit, we explore
soul in the Arts--history, music, literature
(all genre) to see "soul" as Lerone
Bennett, an editor of Ebony magizine, de-
"The American counterpart
fines it:
of the African concept of NegrAude a
distinct quality of Negroness growing not
out of the Negro's experience and his genes,...
Soul is the Negro's
antithesis to America's thesis (white)
a confrontation of spirits that could and
should lead to a higher synthesis of the
two."
is to this synthesis that
this unit is dedicated....
5
Objectives of the Unit
II.
Ceneral objectives
A.
To prove that education can be a "cure" to
1.
bigotry,
To realize that a people's feelings and
2.
strivings can be understood through its
artistic contributions.
To combat racial prejudice in the English
3.
class by enhancing the prestige of
individual members of the Negro race
particularly those in the creative arts,
To understand that a person's self-concept
4.
can be enriched by knowledge and appreciation
of the worth of another,
To appreciate a unique viewpoint of life as
5.
stems from the experience of the black man
through centuries of persecution and bigotry.
To suggest various meanings to "soul" as it
6.
is used today by the black and to relate it
to "black consciousness",
To understand the identity crisis the black
7.
ma:i has undergone in the 20th century.
To realize that "soul" as a folk concept
S.
is the Black man's answer to this crisis,
To know that the black concept of "soul"
E.
expresses the growing Negro reaction
against oppression and rejection on one
hand, and against assimilation or absorption
on the other.
To place "soul" or black consciousness in
10.
the mainstream of American consciousness.
Specific Knowledge and Skills
B
To gain an all-encompassing definition of
1.
'soul" through its relevance through black
music, art, history, and literature.
To appreciate the heritage and history of
2,
the Afro-American.
To learn about the effect of slavery on the
3.
black man and how this experience and its
:onsequences affects the "arts" of the Black
American.
To learn that "soul" music today is the
4.
natural culmination of the unique contribution
of the Black American to music, ie. work
chants, field hollers, spirituals, country
blues, city blues, swing, jazz, rhythm and
blues, progressive jazz and "soul music of
the 60's".
To understand that "color", the question of
5
race, makes the black viewpoint unique and the
attitudes toward him unique.
To acknowledge the diffeiences in attitude And
6
prejudices of the Southern white (overt) ana
the Northern white (covert) prejudice (with the
de-facts prejudices in housing and job opportunity).
To use the various "genre" of lite.ature as
7,
6
learned by the 10th grade student, to pin-
point the Afro-American's contribution to the
short story, the personal essay, the formal
essay, the historical novel, the drama, the
novel and the poem (by using relevant examples
of each which show the literary type as good
literature and as a particular viewpoint of
the black man in his own struggle or in his
relationship to other black men or to the
white man in the North and South.)
To analyze all the forces and attitudes which
8.
make a particular '31ack man the artist he
becomes, a man who never forgets his identity
even though a success in the white culture by
using Dick Gregory and his book Nigger.
To learn to write forcefully on one's own
9.
beliefs and attitudes through the analysis
of major black essayists like James Baldwin,
J. S, Redding, Louis Lomax and Le Roi Jones.
To learn library skills through research on
10.
various black writers and musicians and their
lives and also research on various attitudes
of the black man (the Uncle Tom, the middle
class Negro, the militant, the black "economic
power" leader, the intellectual, tie ghetto
negro and the various white attitudes (the
Southern Paternalist, the Souther; bigot, the
"nigger-hater", the Northern white phony liberal,
the average white man; the poor-white Southerner,
the blue-collar Northern white, the white
educationalist, the white politician,)
7
Introductory Activities
III.
A unit of this type may be introduced inductively
A.
allowing the students to experience growing curiousity
themselves; thus I purpose the following choice of
opening procedures (depending on level and interest
of the students):
Give an attitude poll to find out the under-
1.
lying attitudes in the class toward the Black
American and then play the tape of the first
program on the attitudes of white and black
people toward the black man and the prevalent
misconceptions of both.
Play records of "soul music" such as "Respect"
2.
by Aretha Franklin, ''Alfie" by Dione Warwick
or "Fire' by Arthur Brown or some blues by
Billie Holiday or gospel music by M:halia
Jackson or instv.:,nental blues such as "Mood
Indigo" by Duke Ellington or the trumpet by
Charlie "Bird" Parker.
Discuss the quality of the music, its
a.
tone, its plaintiveness, its earthiness, its
pulsing rhythm, spare earthy lyrics; its
"soul".
Show the movie, Raisen in the Sun" or the
3.
lesser known "Nothing But A Man" and discuss
the attitudes of the Negro (Northern Negro in the
former and Southern Negro in the latter) and the
various white attitudes depicted in each (see
latter analysis of each).
Begin with Negro humor (since a people's ability
4.
to endure suffering and laugh at it,
is one of the
definitions of "soul").
Type up and discuss some of
the "Simple" tales of Harlem by Hughes or "Like
One of the Family" by Alice Childress (about the
Negro "domestic").
Discuss the Racism of the English language:
Help
5.
the students see how many words & connotations
of black you can name (most will be perjorative
uses of the word, (i. e. "black magic", "black as night"),
Yet white will be universally associated with purity
These games will be conducted to
and goodness.
change the kind of social, racial, and personal
relationships that give the words "black" and "white"
their present values.
Ditto up and discuss portions of the writings
6.
of Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Frederick
Douglas, Dick Gregory, and black poets, Cullen Countee,
Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Dunbar,
to try to put together a montage of the various
qualities of "Soul" as exemplified in these pieces
before tackling the whole words.
S
Required of All Students
Core Activities:
IV.
Once the Unit has been launched, the core activities
will depend upon the interest of the class in certain
attitudinal areas and the maturity of the particular
students (the following activities are not necessarily
in the order they will be taught.
"Soul" in Music
A.
A
Singing
Class reading of the article "Lady Soul:
1.
1968) about
it like it is (Time June 28,
Aretha Franklin (attached) and listening to her
records.
Class analysis of "soul" music which will be
2
We will trace
brought in by various students.
the history of "soul" music from its origin in
work songs, African chants, spirituals,
gospel, blues, jazz, swing, rhythm and blues,
be-bop, rock & roll and cool jazz.
Ilse of
materials from LeRoi Jones' Blues People and the
history of "black music" on the record, "The
pelievers-the black experience in song" RCA
Victor 1968.
Various students will research the music
a.
types, the leading exponents of each
type (See A.2) and perhaps talented
students can demonstrate some of the
musical forms.
nesearch will be done to relate the
b.
components of the music to the ingrediants
Reference works will include
of "soul'.
the biographies of Billie Holiday, Bo
Didley, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington,
Count Basle, Louis Armstrong etc.
"Soul" In History
B.
Since the American Negro's contribution to
history is now being taught as a part of
Americ,n history courses, we will only
emphasize the events which form the heritage
of "soul".
Students will see a brief history of the
1.
American Negro, such as the filmstrips and
records produced by Pepsi Cola.
Students will hear the tapes of "Of Black
2.
America" programs, expecially the one called
The Black Soldier" & "Slavery".
Students will be given excerpts from essays
3.
and biographical materials which shed light
on the suffering, pain and triumphs of the
Negro in history only as they have literary
Excerpts from:
merit.
The Confessions of Nat Turne- #Styron
a.
Autobiography of Frederick Dcogl:s
b.
Up From Slavery-Washington
c.
Lonesome Road-the story of the Negro's
d.
Part in America-Redding
9